Mainframes serve a high number of users, typically processing thousands of transactions every second while maintaining centralized terabyte-size data. Mainframes can implement load-balancing techniques including offloading tasks to supporting compute devices. Some technical challenges for the implementation of load-balancing techniques in mainframe environments include adequate optimization of data processing speed, scalability, management of memory, and efficient use of computational resources. These challenges make offloading decisions non-deterministic. Sometimes it can be efficient to offload a task to a supporting compute device while other times it may be better to execute the task locally at the mainframe.
Therefore, a need exists for systems to implement efficient load-balancing techniques based on emergent properties of a mainframe environment.